Oreos 'n' Cream Cake

Look what I had for coffee today! Isn't is beautiful?!
Well, it is my birthday and this year I figured ... I always make cakes for other people. Why not make a cake for myself?! So it took me some time to figure out what I want ... I think I have told you already that I love sweets ... probably more than once ... ;-) And I especially love sweets from the countries I have lived in for a bit while being abroad ... So here is another thing I love:

When I saw this recipe for an Oreos 'n' Cream Cake I thought that is it. I have got to try it. So I did. And it turned out pretty well. I LOVE the filling. In my eyes the filling alone is worth trying the recipe. It does not taste like a cream cheese filling - even though there is cream cheese in there. But it also does not taste like butter cream. Really lovely! And that filling between moist layers of chocolate cake ...


Well, sorry guys ... am off to the kitchen and get another piece ...

Babysocks done

I used this pattern for the newborn socks. The pattern is in german and the size is stated as 56/ 62. I really really hope that they will fit!!!
There are however many english patterns available on the internet for free. (There are for example many on Ravelry). I really really loved the pattern for baby moccasins by The Purl Bee. I wanted to try to make them but quickly figured out that I did not have the right yarn at hand. And since I did not know how to adjust the pattern to the yarn I had - and could not bring myself to try to figure it out - I had to search for another pattern.

I think they worked out quite cute ... and once I had figured out the pattern they were done surprisingly quickly!

Choco-Peanutbutter Cupcakes

Yesterday I finally got the chance to try my new muffin pan. It looks a bit funny - the muffin or cupcake is higher but smaller in diameter. To try the pan I made choco-peanutbutter cupcakes with my daughter. They turned out pretty nice ... but took a while to make. I realized only after starting that you have to actually fill the cupcakes after baking - which I had never done before. Also I realized that I definitely need to buy better supplies for piping icing and cream and stuff ... But it worked out. I did get the filling into the cupcakes. Well, some burst ... but my daughter found that rather funny cause she got to try the ruined ones straight away. The way the chocolate frosting is made was new to me. I have never made chocolate frosting with sour cream - but it's not too bad.
Only problem now ... well, I only realized that the recipe does not make 12 but 24 cupcakes when filling the dough into the pans - I REALLY should start reading the recipe BEFORE I actually start making it - and now I have very many cupcakes sitting in my kitchen ... and no guests at the weekend ...
Am wondering whether I can freeze them ... probably will just go ahead and try. If we try to eat all of them we're probably gonna end up sick ...

Busy box - ideas wanted!!!!

I have started to put together a "busy box" for my daughter. I want to give it to her when I have to go to hospital (to have the baby) so she can pass the time more easily. Also I want to use that box once I am back home to give it to her when I am nursing or changing diapers or doing whatever is necessary and can't at the moment pay much attention to her ... So it's supposed to be kind of a treat that she can keep herself busy with. I was thinking alot about what to put in there. It has to be stuff that she can do all alone ... and I had a hard time to actually come up with things that are new but she would be able to do (mostly) on her own. This is what I have so far:

Some new books. I actually want to record these for her on CD so she can listen to them even if I can't actually read for her at that moment. Hope it'll work out.

A wooden construction set. I am super excited about this (I got it second hand). I really hope she will like it. It is completely new to her so I hope it'll keep her busy screwing and building for a while ...


An old phone for pretend play. For some weird reason she loves phones.

New puzzles. I hope they will not be too hard for her ... She loves puzzles and the ones she owns are all a bit too easy for her now.

I have no idea what this is called in English. It's basically a set which consists out of plastic beads and plastic boards where you are supposed to stick the beads onto ...
You can create patterns that way and once you have filled the whole board you iron it - and the plastic beads melt and make up a coaster or something similar ...
I actually don't like plastic toys very much ... but I figured she might like the activity. And I could not find a similar one that involves something non-plastic. (Already tried making necklaces out of wooden beads - but for some reason that does not seem to appeal too much to her.)

A new sticker book.

A book with "worksheets" in there. For some really strange reason she seems to totally love these. I actually plan to take the book apart and put the pages into page protectors so she can work on them with dry-erase-markers. I do think however, that she probably will not be able to do these alone. She usually wants somebody to tell her what she has to do on each page ...


I think I will change the contents of the box once in a while - so it'll stay kinda fresh and new to her.
Do you have any other ideas what I could put in there to keep a 4year old busy for a while?

Magnetic weekly planner for kids

I had this project in my head already since AGES ... so I am very pleased that it is finally done! I wanted to make some kind of weekly planner for my daughter where I could put down things like
-going to kindergarten
-activities we are doing
-certain "routines" we have (like having eggs for breakfast on sunday)
-when daddy is not working from at home
....

Lately she started referring to the different days of the week by their names and often wanted to know whether something was going to happen on "Monday" or "Wednesday" or ... However, she still has alot of trouble remembering what day of the week it is and what will come next so I thought this might help her to get it all in some kind of "order" eventually. At first I was thinking of making a timetable (which would have taken less time I suppose) but since we don't have a really rigid schedule and like to change things according to weather, liking, time ... whatever ... I figured a timetable would not really work. So I made magnets to use at our fridge which are arranged kinda like a timetable.

(If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see the magnets more closely.)

I was thinking alot about what to use to make the magnets. You could use pretty much anything ... fabric, felt, laminated paper, wood, polymer clay ... In the end I settled for simple coloured crafting cardboard and added magnetic foil to the back. It's comparably cheap and you can easily add or replace magnets if you need/ want to.

I simply made magnets with the weekdays (Monday till Sunday) and arranged them on the fridge in a row. (As I am German I used the german words of course.) I colour-coded them in making Saturday and Sunday red. Then I made round magnets which stand for certain activities, like
baking - cupcake
crafts - scissors
going to the library - books
going to the playground - swings
....
I just printed small cliparts and coloured them (only have a black and white printer) and glued these to round cardboard pieces. That's it.
I am planning on writing down the activities onto the round magnets as well in the future (just was a bit too lazy for that at the moment). And once she actually starts reading I will probably replace the pictures with just words. I love that you can really easily adjust this planner to any needs that you might have.
(For older kids that are learning a second language you could even make it in another language.)


I also included the months and seasons. They are again colour coded. So summer is yellow and all summer months are on yellow cardboard. Winter is white, fall brown and spring is green. I am planning to include the date as well - so I will make some number magnets. But I did not want it to get too confusing for now and I thought the date would be a bit too much at the moment. So I will do that later once my daughter mastered the weekdays and months.

I am planning on going over this planner with her each day and talking about which day it is, which day is tomorrow (and was yesterday), what we are going to do today ... and the rest of the week. She can pick out the magnets - which she loves!!! Couple days ago during the day I told her that we would have to go shopping if we want to bake something (we were not at all talking about the weekly planner or anything) and her reply was "We will have to put the shopping cart on the planner!" :-)
And another advantage it has - it also kinda breaks down the week for myself and I it is easier for me to keep track of what activities we do. It has happened in the past that we ended up colouring for days in a row, which is fine as long as my daughter enjoys it. But sometimes I am just at a loss about what to do the next day and she also seems not too satisfied with her choice. Now I can just ask my daughter what she would like to do and actually seeing her options visually in front of her makes it alot easier for her to choose something! Before she would often tell me the same activities over and over again ... Now she also picks out activities that we rarely did before (like cooking together for example). So far it really is working very nicely!

DIY-whiteboard/ dry erase board for kids

Lately I was thinking of buying a chalkboard for my daughter. She loves drawing and writing and she seems to like it even more, when she can erase things again. She has a small chalkboard already - but it is really tiny. So I was thinking of getting a bigger one to hang at the wall in her room. I was however not too keen on all the dust chalk would bring into the room .... so I was thinking about an alternative. I figured maybe a whiteboard would be a nice way - no dust. Still can erase stuff. So I was already checking for offers and prices ... when I happened to stumble across this post about a picture frame dry erase board at the blog Make it and love it. I thought what a great idea. And it would probably turn out MUCH cheaper than buying a dry erase board. Only thing was - I did not really want to hang a big glass frame into my kid's room ....
But I knew that I could buy large picture frames that have no glass but some kind of plastic instead. I was not sure whether it would work - but I was eager to try.

So I bought a large wooden frame with plastic instead of glass. I made a mark on the plastic with a dry erase marker - and even after one day it was easily erased with a bit of felt.
(I am not sure though whether it depends on the kind of plastic used or whether it works on all plastic material. I know that on some page protectors - which I have used with dry erase markers - the erase marker actually cannot be erased anymore after staying on for too long.)
So there was nothing in my way to make my daugher her own dry erase board!

It's really easy - if you want to make one too all you need is:
-one picture frame with plastic instead of glass in desired size

optional:
-paint
-fabric
-anything else to embellish
-print outs

I painted the frame yellow. But you could either buy a frame at your desired colour or embellish it any other way you can think of.

Inside the frame I just put a white paper and some printouts, that I plan to change once in a while. (At the moment there are several names in there and a traceable alphabet.) But you could put in there some kind of fabric or some paper in another colour. You could use printouts of numbers, mazes, pictures, letters .... well, anything that your child might like to trace or to complete (like "connect the dots" pictures) ... The possibilities are really endless!


As you can see my daughter likes the board. She loves playing "school" at the moment so I think it will be a big hit ...

Baby legwarmers

Almost one year ago I wanted to make some legwarmers for my daughter. I also managed to make some but the first attempt lead to a legwarmer that was too small. I never undid that one ... I really hate undoing things that I made ... so I still had this one tiny legwarmer sitting in my wool box. When I found it again a couple days ago I thought maybe I could use it for the baby ... so I started making a second one. Done now! Hopefully they will fit the baby before the cold weather will be over ... :-)


This was a nice and quick project. I like knitting and find it very relaxing - especially if there is not much to think about .... (no complicated pattern I mean ...)
I am thinking of making some tiny baby socks ... but gotta find a good pattern first ...

Raspberry ripple cake

Today I tried this recipe for a so called Raspberry ripple cake which I found on the BBC website. It looked very good when it came out of the oven.

However, when I cut into it I realized that it is was not cooked completely ... :-( I figure it was because I used frozen raspberries and did not let them thaw before putting them into the dough. I left the cake 25 minutes in the oven before adding the marshmallows which probably was too short. Next time I'll leave it longer ...

Because I had to return the cake to the oven for more baking time the marshmallow topping got really brown. I still liked it - but think it is more delicious when it is still soft. However, guess I'll have to make it again. Husband and daughter liked it. And if my daughter eats something with raspberries in there that is pretty much a miracle in itself!!!! :-)

Sewing for kids

Actually, I never would have gotten the idea to give my daughter needle and thread. I thought that must be way too hard for a 4year old. But then I read this post on Sew, Mama, Sew! and thought, "Maybe I'm wrong." (You really should check out that post if you have kids. I think the ideas are just adorable.) So I searched for an old embroidery hoop, some VERY old (and may I say rather ugly) embroidery fabric, a needle (which is not sharp) and thread. When I asked my daughter whether she wanted to sew she was instantly very keen to try. I was not sure how it would work out. I had made her lacing cards before but she lost interest rather quickly. So I gave her the hoop with the fabric and she started stitching away. Oh, first she inquired - several times actually - whether the needle really was not sharp cause obviously she was very afraid to hurt herself. And once she started I was amazed what a good job she did. I have not seen her work that concentrated on something in quite some time. Lately it actually has been really hard to come up with projects to do with her cause she either was not interested in trying right from the beginning or shortly after we started a project. She would loose interest so quickly - I really had to swallow hard and try not to get frustrated some times. But with this ... she was just sitting there for a really long time and stitching! After dinner she requested to sew some more ... It was really so much fun to watch her! And it was very nice sitting together on the sofa - she stitching away while I was knitting! Really cool!
I am thinking of getting some prettier fabric for her to stitch on ... so we can make something out of it and "save" it. Maybe I even get her to work with a "real" (meaning sharp) needle - which would make the fabric choice a bit easier ... And I definitely love the idea to make festive banners in the post by Sew, Mama, Sew! Maybe we'll try this next.

Low-fat banana bread

I tried this banana bread recipe on Craftzine. - For some reason I seem to like bake with bananas .... Maybe I should have an extra category for banana related recipes. ;-) - It came out really well. Very tasty!

Quick chocolate dessert

I found this quick recipe for "grownup poptarts" at the blog Little acorn. Had to try it. I would not call it a poptart. But I never had poptarts with chocolate ... maybe they do taste similar. The taste rather reminds me of the french pain au chocolate (no idea whether I spelled that right). It was really quick to make, however we liked it better completely cooled. (We ate the first batch while still warm and realized only later that they taste much better cold.)

Twirly skirt

I had planned - and actually bought a pattern - to make a twirly dress already a while ago. I think it was beginning of the year ... (Scary!) So now I finally wanted to do it. In the end I decided that I make a skirt for now (save the dress for next year) cause it's probably easier and takes less time. My daughter had already told me that she wanted something from the fabric above (Also bought second hand.) and I thought that it must be great for a twirly skirt cause the pattern is already arranged in panels. Well, after actually spending almost a WHOLE DAY trying to make straight panels out of the fabric without cutting into the pictures ... I was totally frustrated and gave up! Can it be THAT hard to draw a straight line?!
Because of my yelling and swearing my husband came to check what was wrong ... after standing there and looking at the fabric for about 5 seconds he told me in a calm voice: "The pattern is not printed straight onto the fabric." I am like "WHAT"!!!!

Just a lot louder and much more annoyed than you can probably imagine. How can they do that?!
Well, in the end I managed to get the panels kinda straight ... but it was really no fun!

For the skirt I used the tutorial from Ikat bag and the one from Blueprints. I also tried a new method for gathering fabric. I used to gather with two rows of basting stitches ... but it took forever and I was never really satisfied with the outcome. For some reason the gathering was never even. So I googled and found these two tutorials - one on the blog Sew little time and one on the website The Family Homestead - on another method of gathering and tried it. I like this method better and will do it that way in the future. However, when pressing the skirt in order to do the topstitching I realized the gathering is still pretty much not even ... but oh well ... I hope it'll get better with practice.
I also consulted a book I own: sew what! SKIRTS. (Yes, a regular book. Out of paper and everything. Remember?) ;-) I bought this book a while ago and I really enjoyed looking through it. It explains how to draft (yes, make your own patterns!) and sew skirts for yourself. I am already very excited that once the big baby belly is - hopefully - gone I can try it and make a skirt for myself!

Here is the finished skirt. Once it is washed and the wearer is compliant I will add some pictures of it being worn.

How to organize links/ project ideas?

So since I don't have to work anymore I am trying to get everything ready for the baby - obviously - but also am trying to finally get on with some projects I had in mind for so long already AND am trying to get everything more organized. One of the things I wanted to start reorganizing - or should I say organizing for the first time - are the links to all the great websites and project ideas I come across when reading other blogs, googling or looking for inspiration. And ... well, I did not get very far yet. How do you organize links and/ or ideas?
I started out using bookmarks - and putting these into folders ... and subfolders ... and ... well subfolder ... you get the idea ...
At some point there were so many, that when I was actually looking for something that I knew I had saved a while ago - there was no way of finding it (at least not within a reasonable amount of time). So I stopped bookmarking ... and put links simply into a text file. That was meant to be a temporary solution - until I figure out something better. But ... I haven't yet figured out something better. So now I have a whole load of bookmarks and a textfile with MANY links ... and still don't find anything ... and no clue how to properly organize all that stuff!

ANY SUGGESTIONS????

Chocolate marshmallow muffins

Yesterday I made muffins with my daughter - just because of it. No special reason. We tried a recipe from a book for chocolate marshmallow muffins. I think they look declicous. (Sorry, I would love to print the recipe - but I don't want to violate any copyright regulations.) The taste was alright - but not overwhelming ... so I am thinking I will try to make up my own. (Of course they will contain MORE marshmallows and MORE chocolate!) If it works out I will post the recipe. (Might take a while though.)

While making the muffins though I realized baking muffins is really a great activity for kids! Lot's to measure, to cut, to stir ... oh, and to taste! (Not the dough itself of course, but chocolate, marshmallows or fruit ... depending on the kind of muffin.) And you don't have to hurry as long as you have not mixed up the dry parts and the liquid parts of the dough yet ... so you can take your time. (Which really bothers me with some cookies doughs. If you handle them for too long they either get too dry or too soft.) My daughter loves to put the paper cups into the baking dish. And she loves checking on the muffins when they are in the oven. Well, and she loves to eat them ...